Historic Townships of Oakland County

[Danny]

How did historic townships of Oakland County formed? What townships became villages that became cities? Did those people lviving in the townships, villages and cities stop Detroit's Annexation attempts? Or stop other neigboring towns and cities from annexating their areas? Any thoughts?

[corktownyuppie]

Did those people lviving in the townships, villages and cities stop Detroit's Annexation attempts?

Was Detroit actively trying to annex townships? I was always under the assumption that townships chose to join cities in order to have access to, what at that time, was better services.

[Scottathew]

Where I grew up, Clawson, it was once part of both Troy Township and Royal Oak Township.

[MikeM]

Check here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=ahP...page&q&f=false

Or find a copy of the book, Oakland County Book of History, edited by Arthur Hagman, 1970.

[Scottathew]

Here's some historic maps from 1872:

http://www.historicmapworks.com/Atla...County%201872/

[Detroitnerd]

Townships generally don't become villages. And townships didn't generally become cities until the middle of the 20th century. Even then, it was rare.

Basically, townships were land-management schemes, six miles on a side, designed to divide land up into quarter sections and farms.

Now, in the 19th century, villages would spring up around places where you had a river. Birmingham was an early village, as it had the Rouge for water power. Rochester was another early village, due to its accessibility via the Clinton River. Even the presence of a post office would require giving a hamlet a name, but incorporating a village or town usually meant you had a main street, businesses, etc.

Only with the advent of mass car culture did they start taking township-sized tracts without major water features, villages or rail links and incorporating them as cities. Troy [[1955) is a good example of that. Whether that sort of "city" can be sustained into the future, if gas prices soar and people can't drive anymore, I do not know. Anyway, it is a relatively new phenomenon.

[JBMcB]

Check here:

Or find a copy of the book, Oakland County Book of History, edited by Arthur Hagman, 1970.

I have a copy if anyone wants me to look up anything in particular.

[Packman41]

Was Detroit actively trying to annex townships? I was always under the assumption that townships chose to join cities in order to have access to, what at that time, was better services.

Yes, Detroit was actively gathering up adjacent townships, especially in Wayne County toward the east, e.g. Grosse Pointe Township.

And the townships did protest and file appeals, see this example here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=lBI...0annex&f=false

[Detroitnerd]

Detroit was finally "reined in" by an orgy of incorporation, as developed areas in the townships outside Detroit made themselves cities -- resulting in today's clusterfuck of 100-odd governments competing with each other and duplicating services. But at least they kept Detroit from growin', huh?

[EastsideAl]

I don't think there was ever any serious move though by Detroit to annex areas in Oakland or Macomb Counties. All of the annexations, and protective incorporations to prevent annexation, happened in Wayne County.

[Detroitnerd]

I don't think there was ever any serious move though by Detroit to annex areas in Oakland or Macomb Counties. All of the annexations, and protective incorporations to prevent annexation, happened in Wayne County.

I saw a map from the 1920s suggesting that, by 1930, Detroit would expand into Oakland and Macomb counties. Of course, by 1929, Detroit was cut off at Woodward [[Ferndale) and Gratiot [[East Detroit).

[Mikeg]

Detroit was finally "reined in" by an orgy of incorporation, as developed areas in the townships outside Detroit made themselves cities -- resulting in today's clusterfuck of 100-odd governments competing with each other and duplicating services. But at least they kept Detroit from growin', huh?

The truth is that Detroit's frantic pace of expansion and annexation from 1910 to 1926 was finally "reined in" by the Great Depression and Detroit's own water, sewer and transit policies. The last annexations happened in 1926, just before the stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression. In return for annexation, the city had to provide certain services, such a police, fire, water, sewer, roads, transit, etc. Unfortunately, the city was right in the middle of expanding the capital-intensive services to keep up with those last annexations when the Great Depression hit.

Excerpts from "Detroit Water and Sewage Department - the First 300 Years"

The Solution To Pollution Is Not Dilution

...... The U.S. and Great Britain signed the Waterways Treaty on January 11, 1909. The pact recognized pollution as an international problem, and provided that boundary waters between the United States and Canada, or waters crossing the boundary "shall not be polluted on either side to the injury of health or property on the other." It foreshadowed the necessity for remedial measures and is considered the genesis of DWSD's Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Meanwhile, yearly typhoid epidemics reached a high point in 1912, prompting the U.S. Public Health service to mandate the disinfection of all water distributed to the Department's customers. Calcium hypochlorite was first used in 1913. It was replaced in 1916 by liquid chlorine, a more effective disinfectant. Disinfection had a dramatic impact. Typhoid deaths in Detroit reached a rate of 25 for every 100,000 people during the year prior to the introduction of liquid chlorine. The following year's death rate fell to less than half that amount, approximately 10 for every 100,000 people. Illness from waterborne organisms became negligible after the implementation of 24-hour monitoring of water quality by degreed chemists in 1917.

Because disinfection of drinking water was not considered a complete answer to water treatment, the first segment of the Detroit River Interceptor [[DRI) was built in 1912. The DRI intercepted sewage and discharged it below the system intake. At that time, the Department made plans to build the filtration plant in Water Works Park. In the meantime, an exhibit was set up near the Hurlbut Memorial Gate on East Jefferson where Detroiters were invited to compare filtered and unfiltered samples of drinking water. The clear filtered water was the hands-down choice over the off-colored, unfiltered samples. On December 2, 1923, the Department formally opened the largest filtration plant in the world...........

By the end of the '20s, the practice of channeling untreated wastewater into the river could no longer be tolerated. Pollution was exacerbated by Detroit's frantic pace of expansion and annexation from 1910-1926. The city was flirting with the one-million population mark while the auto industry roared. The Detroit Board of Water Commissioners [[BOWC) addressed the need for more treated water - created by development and annexation - in 1924 by authorizing construction of the Springwells Water Treatment Plant at an estimated $30 million. When fully completed in 1935, it was the largest self-contained water plant in the world; adding about 300 MGD to the overall system capacity.

After entering service, it was known for a short time as "the White Elephant of Springwells Street." The unflattering sobriquet was bestowed by those who perceived the plant's vast size as a wasteful and extravagant expression of a bygone era......

In 1925, the BOWC gave the go-ahead for construction of the Wastewater Treatment Plant - at the confluence of the Rouge and Detroit rivers - to deal with the flood of wastewater created by Detroit's industrial and urban development and a growing number of requests for additional services from suburban communities. Unfortunately, economic conditions created by the Great Depression halted construction in 1932. Construction would not start up again until 1936, after an infusion of money from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Public Works Administration. That $20 million allowed the Department to not only complete plant construction,but provided enough to finance the extension of the DRI to the treatment plant.

The Wastewater Treatment Plant entered service in February 1940 at a cost of $22,635,000 [[more than half spent to complete the DRI and the network of connecting mains). It was designed to provide primary treatment for 2.4 million people in Detroit, Gratiot Township [[Harper Woods), Grosse Pointe City, Grosse Pointe Farms, Grosse Pointe Park, Grosse Pointe Woods, Hamtramck, Highland Park, Redford Township, St. Clair Shores, Southfield Township and Warren Township. With modifications, the plant was expected to service the needs of a population of four million......

A 1935 city ordinance required the cost of operations and debt repayment [[$1,392,543 during the first 12 months) be raised by supplemental charges added to every bill issued by the BOWC. Detroiters paid 11 cents per thousand cubic feet of water and suburban communities paid an extra 21.61 cents per thousand cubic feet.

Post-war Development

When normal economic development returned after the end of World War II, new homes were often connected to lateral sewer mains laid in the 1920s because of a decline in new home construction during the Depression. The Great Depression also caused the brakes to be applied to the BOWC's liberal expansionist policy. L.G. Lenhardt - General Manager beginning in 1938 - was a product of the era's cautious approach to development. He held the Department to a course that mirrored Detroit's near-saturated state of development and proclaimed that the Department would concern itself with only taking care of what it already had. He advocated entry into the water and sewerage business by other government bodies - Wayne County, in particular - to serve needs created by suburban development.

The Department's conservative management style was radically transformed in 1956 with the arrival of Gerald J. Remus, the new Superintendent and Chief Engineer. Remus believed Detroit was up to the task of filling the role of water and wastewater services provider for the whole of metro Detroit. Under his direction, the Department returned to a policy of expansion with an aggression not seen since the end of the 19th century.......

However, by then the "window of opportunity" for annexing additional surrounding communities had long since been slammed shut. Instead, the DWSD's new expansionist policy fueled the growth of the suburban cities that had taken root during the DWSD's previous policy of "only taking care of what it already had".

Over on the "Federal Judge to Order a New Management System for DWSD", I found portions of this comment of your's to be factually incorrect:

......Though it wasn't a city department, the Detroit United Railway had tremendous scope 100 years ago, running electric trains on Detroit city streets, and running lines out as far as Jackson, Pontiac, Port Huron, Toledo, even Cleveland. Due to a boom in road-building subsidies in the 1910s, their profitability declined, but Detroit inherited the city system and ran it for some time. Unfortunately, with the city only running the rail lines within the city, it altered the development of the metroplex forever..

Let me offer an example of how the DSR and the city of Detroit shot itself in the foot with its roadway and transit decisions that caused DSR streetcar service to the Macomb County communities of Baseline, Van Dyke and Center Line to end in 1932:

The Center Line-Harper Streetcar was originally a Detroit United Railway [[DUR) electric interurban line that began service along Van Dyke in 1901. The northern terminus of this line was at the turn-around loop just north of Ten Mile Road. The southern end of this DUR line was at the intersection of Van Dyke and Harper Avenues in Detroit. From there, the southbound traveler would transfer to the Harper Line of the Detroit Street Railways [[DSR) which ended at Cadillac Square in downtown Detroit. In 1922, this DUR line was acquired by the DSR, which continued the operation with more modern streetcar equipment.

The line had a short stretch of double track at Nine Mile Road and was completely double-tracked south of Seven Mile Road. A decision by the city of Detroit to widen Van Dyke in 1932 caused the DSR streetcar service north of Seven Mile Road to be replaced by a shuttle bus. During the widening, the line was double-tracked all the way to Eight Mile Road and upon completion of the project in 1934, Eight Mile Road became the northern terminus of this streetcar line.

My parents remember riding the streetcar with their parents from their home in Center Line to downtown Detroit and back. They have no memories of riding that shuttle bus to go shopping in Detroit.

[Detroitnerd]

Clearly, the same antipathies that drove the efforts to "rein in" Detroit and enshrine "home rule" are alive and well today...

[Detroitnerd]

Now, if the city had used its bonding power to build a subway instead of purchase the tracks of the DUR ...

Well, hindsight is always 20-20 ...

[Mikeg]

Clearly, the same antipathies that drove the efforts to "rein in" Detroit and enshrine "home rule" are alive and well today...

I provided some historical facts to counter your assertions and kept my personal feelings out of my post. Apparently, you find it easier to just assign dark motives and labels on others instead of trying to defend your statements.

[Detroitnerd]

I provided some historical facts to counter your assertions and kept my personal feelings out of my post. Apparently, you find it easier to just assign dark motives and labels on others instead of trying to defend your statements.

Oh, my, what fun you are. I'm definitely inviting you to my next party because I'm sure you're full of laughs.

Frankly, I never saw anybody so fixated on one issue as you, Mikeg. It gets tiresome. And, yes, at the end of a long day, I'd rather inject a bit of levity and let it alone before it turns into another drawn-out, day-after-day slog through your personal campaign against city water. WE ALL KNOW HOW YOU FEEL BY NOW. Just have an effin laugh and move on, OK? [rolls eyes]

[Novine]

Oakland County includes all or part of 62 townships, villages and cities. Most of the annexation and incorporation battles in Oakland County occurred within the county as existing villages and cities attempted to expand into the surrounding townships. In only a couple of cases did a village or city expand across county lines into Oakland County [[Northville and Fenton).

Several of the county's largest cities were formed when townships incorporated to fend off annexation efforts. Examples include the incorporation of Troy Township into the City of Troy, Avon Township into Rochester Hills, Pontiac Township into Auburn Hills, the incorporation of Farmington Township into Farmington Hills [[including two existing villages) and the incorporation of most of Novi Township into the Village of Novi and then the City of Novi.

A number of communities incorporated to preserve their identity including Huntington Woods, Lake Angelus and the City of the Village of Clarkston. The villages north of the City of Southfield [[Franklin, Bingham Farms and Beverly Hills) all incorporated to avoid being included within the boundaries of the future City of Southfield which was being incorporated from Southfield Township.

Some incorporated for economic reasons like Northville which changed from village to city status to capture revenues from Northville Downs and Wixom which incorporated first as a village and then as a city to capture the tax revenues from the Ford plant which was being built in that portion of Novi Township.

The most recent annexations in Oakland County were from Lyon Township to the City of South Lyon and from Holly Township to the City of Fenton and from Bloomfield Township to the City of Pontiac which is now the site of the massive abandoned development near Telegraph and Square Lake Roads. According to state records, Auburn Hills annexed a small parcel in Pontiac in 2010. That must have been a land transfer between the two cities approved by both city councils. South Lyon also recently transferred some land back to Lyon Township.

[Danny]

Here's what happen why Pontiac miss its chance to become a proposed mega-opolis like Detroit or Flint:

In 1818 Colonel Stephen Mack arrived to area filled with 1,000 lakes. He built an settlement and called it his place "Auburn" after Auburn, New York. He also called it PontiacTownship after Cheif Pontiac who plotted the seige of Fort Detroit from the Brittish during the French-Indian War in 1763. By State legislation Pontiac Township became the county seat and city entity in 1827. When Oakland County was formed in 1818 it only had two large townships. Pontiac and Royal Oak. Both of these townships were a division of 30 x 15 miles. [[ Bigger than present day Detroit, but with little or no human population.) Later as new Oakland County townships formed. Pontiac Township was downsized to 6 X 6 mile area. As settlers came and towns were developed. Residents voted to parts of Pontiac Township to become a city and it did in 1861. and it annexes fewer pieces of southern portion of Bloomfield Township. The eastern and northern portions remain Pontiac Township.

In the meantime the eastern and northern portions of Pontiac Township became the Village of Auburn 1826. Then name was changed to Amy in 1880. In 1917 the township is renamed ' Auburn Heights ' Later in residents in Auburn Heights worried that Pontiac is attempting to annex the area so they ask Legislators to incorporate as the village of 'Pontiac Heights' but they refused. So by 1978 residents voted for a new 1978 SBC Charter Law and area become as the Charter of Pontiac Township as long as the residents can provide it own water, sewage and town charter public services. By 1983 The Pontiac Township Board failed to provide its own services and Pontiac is going to annex all of that land. So by 1983 residents voted to incorporate as the City of Auburn Hills and it did. Residents who lived at the northern portion of village of Lake Angelus didn't want to join new City of Auburn Hills so they voted to found their City of Lake Angelus in 1984. The Village of Auburn Heights joined in and approves it annexation.

In the meantime Pontiac want to get its hands on all of Bloomfield Township. So its residents rushed to vote to have its township to become a charter that remains today. Other neighboring townships decided to go charter to prevent Pontiac's and other smaller cities to attempt annextion:

Orion, Independence, Oakland and Waterford.

[Detroitnerd]

Well put, Novine.

[MikeM]

If you can find the book, Profile of a Metropolis by Mowitz & Wright, from 1962, there's an excellent in-depth review of the political battle to incorporate Farmington Hills in the last chapter, "Annexation and Incorporation in Farmington Township: Skirmishes on the Metropolitan Frontier."

[Mikeg]

Oh, my, what fun you are. I'm definitely inviting you to my next party because I'm sure you're full of laughs.

Frankly, I never saw anybody so fixated on one issue as you, Mikeg. It gets tiresome. And, yes, at the end of a long day, I'd rather inject a bit of levity and let it alone before it turns into another drawn-out, day-after-day slog through your personal campaign against city water. WE ALL KNOW HOW YOU FEEL BY NOW. Just have an effin laugh and move on, OK? [rolls eyes]

When did my alleged antipathies and fixations become the subject of this thread? Do you really think anyone clicking on this thread really cares about your opinions of me and my ability - or lack thereof - to liven up a party? To borrow an over-used catch-phrase, "What a pity all wisdom must die with you." If you find my postings tiresome, there's a very simple solution: use the "ignore list" function!

[Detroitnerd]

I do wonder what happened between the 1890s and the 1920s. Or maybe it's the particular area or the constitution of the particular state. But it seems to me that the 1890s were a time when cities willingly united as supercities, such as New York in 1898, whereas Novine's recap shows instance after instance of defensive incorporation, not just to keep "the city" at bay, but to keep other suburbs at bay. Or was it just the regional geography, with all that land surrounding the city to be gobbled up?

[1953]

The progressive era demonized cities and turned people against them. F--ing William Jennings Bryant.

[Danny]

Since 1900 when New York City Annexed 4 counties. It became America's first supercity. The people of New York City want to show America and the rest of the world that one day supercities would bring regional dollars and build stronger commerce. It's their way of beating a super county like Philadelphia. Not all American cities want to follow New York's ideal. Other American cities did like Chicago and Los Angeles. Later Dallas, Houston, San Diego and Pheonix follow New York Cities plan, but it never increase further due to increase regional tax base.

For Detroit, some neighboring suburbs wanted village incorporation and city charters for protection. [[Even from upcoming sub-divisions who wanted public water from Detroit Dept. of Waterworks.)

[Danny]

How Royal Oak never became a next high populated city:


When Oakland County was formed in 1818. there were only 2 townships, Royal Oak in the south and Pontiac in the north. There were 30 x 15 mile townships bigger than Detroit with little or no people. More settlements and business proposals developed small towns and non-incorporated villages. Newer townships of Lyon, Novi, Quakertown, Ossewa formed. Royal Oak Township shrunk to 6 x 6 Mile area.


How here comes the race bait trick!


In the mid 1850s Fugitive Slave Law was in the effect. This means negro slaves who escaped from their white masters [[ in old Dixieland); if caught must returned. So abolistionists especially Harriet Tubman to Sojourner Truth started the Underground Railroad to leave fugitive negro slaves to Canada for freedom. In Royal Oak Township and Pontiac. White abolitionists start to built Underground Railroad stations in their homes. One somewhere in north of Base Line. The other by a different family somewhere in southern Auburn Village. The Emancipation Proclamation is signed by President Abraham Lincoln, Negro families started to buid their homesteads there, but in smaller numbers. So Royal Oak Township and Pontiac have a small black community.

In the early 1910s Detroit and legislatures wanted to expand its annexation attempts to Oakland and Macomb Counties, but the plan was tossed out. In the meantime when the Village of Royal Oak formed, it have plans to annex all of Royal Oak Township. It did annex the southern piece of Troy Township. There were also concerns of low-income black residents living along north and south of W. 8 Mile Rd. and may obstruct the property values from Detroit's Green Acres and Sherwood Forest to new "Automation Alley" suburban homes. Also "Hillbillyeqsue" shanty hoods were being developed at the southeast corner of Royal Oak Township. So one by one within a few years , residents who lived in Royal Oak Township areas started to vote to start their own cities:

Ferndale became a village in 1919, then a city in 1927.

Pleasant Ridge became a village in 1921, then a city in 1927.

Huntington Woods became a village in 1926, then a city in 1932.

Berkeley became a village in 1923, then a city in 1932.

Oak Park became a village in 1927, then a city. However fewer residents [[ especially low-income black homesteaders) filled a petition against Real Estate developer Majestic Land Company to the Michigan State Supreme Court to unincorporate the village back to Royal Oak Township in 1931 and 1933. They claimed that the company is proposing to vacate fewer low-income black homesteaders of their property and other conserns of excessively high cost of village government. Majestic Land Company won the case, fewer low-income black homesteaders got the boot and homes were developed for Middle income white families. The Oak Park became a city in 1945.


Royal Township resident voters rushed to have its southern corner portion to became a City of Hazel Park in 1941.

In 1955 residents at the Northern corner of Royal Oak Township voted to have its are to become the City of Madison Heights.

Then the residents in the northern part of Royal Oak Township voted and founded their City of Clawson. They also annexed the southern portion of Troy Township.

What's left of Royal Oak Township is at 8 Mile Rd. from Rosewood St. to Wyoming Ave. and Greenfield and 10 Mile Rd. the township became a charter in 1972 as long it can follow SBC's laws. Two townships are divided. Low-income blacks and few Chaldeans [[ formally homesteaders and Detroiters) lived at the southern portion Hasidic Jews and low to middle income whites northern portion. In 2003 low to middle income whites and Hasidic Jews who lived at the northern portion of the township didn't like the poor services so they voted have that area to be annexed to Oak Park and later Oak Park 3 blocks near its industrial area. Royal Oak Township failed its own municipal services so its loses its charter immunity. Any time now Royal Oak Township could be gobbled up either by Oak Park or Ferndale in the near future.